War, War Never Changes
by monkey61090
Summary: This story is a few years old I haven't finished it yet. It originally was just a general post apocalyptic story but I was playing Fallout 3 at the time so it slowly merged into it. I actually had a few more chapters originally but I lost them when my computer crashed. Now I'm just trying to figure out where to go from here
1. The Falling

War, War Never Changes

Chapter 1: The falling

Alexander looked across the classroom, today the teacher was talking about name meanings. He already knew his name's meaning; to defend, help in Greek. Alexander was almost 6 foot and about 165 lbs. He had black hair and blue eyes. He just zoned out pretending to listen. He started thinking about the new girl at his work. Sure other girls at work were good looking and he didn't mind helping them out when they got behind at work, but for her he would have done anything. They had talked somewhat but he knew he didn't have a chance. She not only was good looking but she was actually someone he enjoyed talking to which was a nice change from the others at work. He liked to think of himself as decent looking but he knew he wasn't great looking and from what he knew about her she only went for big badass types. A sudden blaring snapped him out of his thinking as him and his classmates looked around for the source of the sound. "It's the bomb alarm!" someone screamed from behind him. The teacher yelled above everyone "Don't be alarmed it is just a drill now everyone we have done this before, just file to the safety bunkers beneath the school until the drill is over."

They all stood up talking as they slowly walked around wandering towards the bunkers. Nobody took the drills seriously except Alexander. His father had always taught him to be prepared so he paid attention to things like this so when the real thing came he would be ready. Next thing he knew they were already inside the bunkers "Dang" he thought "It's crazy how our minds take over and know what to do." They had had many false alarms before but he knew to take them seriously because you never knew if one day it'd be the real deal.

"Alexander…..Alex…..hello?" Alexander snapped out of his thoughts to look up and see he was one of the few people still in the bunker, everyone else was leaving. His teacher looked at him "The drill is over I suggest you return to your class." Alexander got up and decided not to bother and just started to walk home. He only lived a mile away from school and his sisters school was about half way between the two. He had two sisters; Zoe, who was 16 she was around 5' 2" and Pandora who had just turned 18 (Alexander's parents had always liked Greek names) was like 5' 7". They were both fairly skinny and both had red hair but Zoe had blue eyes like Alexander yet Pandora had green eyes. He figured he would go pull them out of class early with him on his way home. He got to their school and saw a group of guys who looked about 19 and they were all in a circle talking so he just walked past them into the school. By the time he got the girls out of class it was almost time for the school to be out anyways "but oh well" he thought. When they walked out of school the guys were still standing there. "Those guys are always causing problems" Zoe said as they turned to the group.

The guy who seemed in charge started walking towards them looking at Zoe. "Hey I've seen you around school haven't I?" he asked Zoe. "Back off dumbass" she retorted "Otherwise my brother is going to beat your ass" Alexander looked over at her as the guy said "Oh really now?" "Thanks Zoe" Alexander sighed go walk home I'll be home in a while. The girls both looked at him wondering what was going to happen but they decided to walk home and listen to Alexander. Alexander looked at the group asking "Why do you guys have to be jackasses all the time?" The leader of the group backed up as the others walked forward. "What you can't fight your own fights?" Alexander taunted. Alexander was in no way going to win this fight but at the same time he couldn't exactly walk away so he might as well give it his all. He swung for the guy closest to him, hitting him square in the jaw surprising everyone as they expected him to back down. He heard a car behind him and saw the group start running. He confusedly turned around and saw the cops pulling up. "This isn't over" the leader yelled "I'm Bruce and I never forget a face."

As he walked in the front door of his house his parents and sisters were in the living room waiting for him. His mom came up to him looking for any bruises asking if they hurt him. His dad laughed and asked "more importantly did you win?" "No" he said "the cops showed up and scared them off" His mom looked at him "Good you can't be getting in fights like your father used to" Alexander smiled and walked into the kitchen grabbing some food asking "what's for dinner?" His parent said "whatever you guys want, we have to catch a plane in the morning so were going to bed" Alexander got his sisters some pizza and soda and then went to his room to relax. He looked forward to tomorrow. Not school of course but tomorrow was Friday and he worked so he was going to ask Brooke if she wanted to go out tomorrow night.

As he walked in the school doors the next morning all he could think about was tonight he was finally going to ask her and he had a good feeling about it. He sat through history, science, and as he sat in math he began to do as he always did. Start going ever what he and his family called their "Zombie plan" him and his family enjoyed zombie movies and things like that and had plans for what they would do. As he thought about it he jumped when he heard the same siren from the day before. They all looked up at the teacher only to see the teacher running to the bunker screaming "This is not a drill!" everyone started to panic except him. This is why he paid attention to these things. He stood up on his desk and yelled across the room "Hey you guys need to get to the bunker go! Now!" they all surprisingly listened and ran to it. He walked up the bunker and started to close the bunker. One of his classmates looked at him and said "Dude what are you doing? You've got to come in with us" Alexander slid the doors shut saying I can't hide while my family is out here.

Alexander began to run as fast as he could towards his sisters school and say mass chaos. Everyone was running all over and he saw one of the teachers had been trampled over by a bunch of students. "Sorry" he apologized as he ran past without helping but he needed to find his sisters. He saw Zoe and Pandora running across the hall and took a step toward them when he fell over in pain as he felt something hard smash him in the back of the head and as he fell he heard "Told you it wasn't over." He opened his eyes not knowing how long he had been out and he saw both of his sisters above him trying to drag him towards one of the bunkers. Just as they got there a kid shouted "Were all full" and slammed and locked the door leaving them outside. As Alexander looked around he hoped that since it had been this long and nothing had happened that the sirens were wrong. He still needed to get the girls to safety just to be safe. He knew of one of the old bunkers from the cold war era that some students had found a few years back but he didn't know how safe it would be but it had to be better than standing out here in the middle of the school.

As they reached the old bunker they saw that nobody was here hiding (not a comforting sign) and they walked inside and sealed the door. "Let's look around" Alexander said "Just to make sure nobody is hiding in here that we don't know about" as they slowly searched each room they found a room full of dehydrated food which would come in handy if they got stuck a while. They all sat down to rest and Alexander thought to himself "So much for today! I went from my biggest worry being Brooke saying no to my whole family dying" A few hours passed and they still hadn't heard anything when they heard the bomb shelter door creaking open even though it was bolted shut. "This can't be good" Pandora said. "Obviously" Zoe remarked "Hey look another room back here! And it's got an elevator" Alexander looked back "What? How did we miss that?" As they ran toward Zoe, Pandora laughed saying "Does it really matter? We need to get down there. It can't be worse then up here" They all crammed in the elevator which was obviously not meant for this many people. Alexander hit the switch and it slowly started climbing down the shaft. As they went down they heard metal shifting above them and looked up and saw as they went down, about each 10 feet a metal ceiling would close above them making them plenty secure "As long as they have an air supply in here" Alexander commented.


	2. Movement in the Rubble

Chapter 2: Movement in the rubble

As they reached the bottom of the shaft they heard what sounded like several heavy things hitting the ground far, far above them and then the ground began to shake. "What about mom and dad?" Zoe asked Alexander sighed "My job is to protect you two, if anybody could handle themselves its dad and mom is with him" Zoe started to cry as they got out of the elevator leaning on Alexander's shoulder. He looked around and saw it was only one room that was empty save 5 sleeping bags, food and water, enough to last about a month for the three of them and quite luckily a working toilet. "We need to set up grab the sleeping bags and let's get some rest" Alexander told them "I'll stay up and watch for a while and then I'll wake up one of you guys and we will just take turns for a day ok?" The girls nodded and grabbed the sleeping bags, walked in the corner, laid next to each other and fell asleep right away. Alexander wandered around the room making sure to check on the girls every few minutes, even though they were in the room alone he doubted they would have the luxury of having lax security again for a very long time. They took turns for the next day or so only eating, sleeping, and talking. On the third day they heard a beeping like a computer noise and spread out to look for it. Neither of them could find it when Pandora said "wait you guys, I think it's coming from under the floor." They all stopped and looked at where she pointed and you could make out a faint outline of a hatch. Alexander told the girls to back up as he leaned down to the hatch and listened and surprisingly heard a muffled voice below them. It sounded like it was yelling to get their attention but the metal was so thick they couldn't hear him.

Alexander knocked on the hatch yelling down to the voice telling it to open the hatch. All of a sudden the hatch swung open and smacked Alexander right in the face cutting his cheek but he ignored it more interested in who was down there. He looked down and saw a computer lab with a man in a white coat looking up at them. The man in the coat said "My name is James, I have been trying to get your attention since you came down but I was afraid you might have weapons so I didn't want to just pop up." Alexander still wary of him said "Ok fair enough but what are you doing down there?" James looked at him ashamed saying "Well I hid down here when I heard the alarms but I was in such a hurry I forgot to bring the ladder down with me so I couldn't get back up I could only open the hatch" "Do you have any weapons in here?" Alexander asked. James looked confused "Uh why?" Alexander looked at him "To be honest I don't trust you no offense but I don't know you" James looked at him asking "Ok well if I open the hatch to the weapons for you will you let me out?" Alexander looked at the girls and they nodded and Zoe leaned over the hatch saying "Just remember James if you try anything we will kill you with your own weapons" James laughed "Fair enough" James opened the weapons hatch and the group went in and took out everything and then each grabbed one as they lowered the ladder for James to get out.

"Thanks" James said "It's not exactly roomy in there" As James shut the hatch behind him Alexander realized something. "Don't I know you from school?" James looked at him and said "Yeah I think so! You were like 3 years younger than me right?" Alexander laughed "I remember you now; you're the James who hacked into the school computers and deleted everyone's permanent files." James smirked "yeah that was me but I don't do things like that anymore I use what I know for helping now" Well James it looks like we're going to be spending a lot of time together now ha ha" Alexander said as he looked around. "Wait" Zoe said "What about mom and dad?" "Look Zoe" Alexander said saddening "We can't do much for them right now. I am pretty sure those were those new nukes they invented, powerful blasts but the radiation in the air dissipates after about 3 weeks. So I'll tell you what that's about how much food we have so after the food is gone we will go up and try to figure out what happened. Ok?" The girls both looked sad but nodded and went to bed.


	3. Remnants of a Shattered City

Chapter 3: Remnants of a shattered city

A few weeks past and they were on their last night of their original food and they decided to use the food James had to carry after they left so they would have something which luckily James had backpacks also. "Ok so tomorrow we leave right? Right?" Zoe kept asking "YES!" Alexander said for the 40th time that night "Now go to bed, James fixed the elevator so were leaving bright and early"

As Alexander woke up the next morning he opened up his eyes and saw both of the girls already packed and sitting right in front of him watching him "OK OK you're up! We can go now!" Zoe practically screamed. Pandora just sat there looking at him. "Yes yes I know give me a second dang, I want to find them too but we can't go out half cocked, we need our game plan, we already have all our food, water, guns, and sleeping bags packed in the backpacks and we each have one gun and ammo that we will carry in our arms at all times" Alexander said rubbing his eyes "but first we need to see what we are dealing with, which means going outside" Said James. They had decided James was trust worthy and he wanted to go with them so they welcomed him. There was safety in numbers. Everyone got up in the elevator as James turned it on and it started climbing. As it got close to each metal ceiling it opened for them letting them reach the surface.

When they reached the top they exited the elevator looking around. The bomb shelter door had been blasted open by the looks of it. Alexander looked at them and said "Let me go first just in case there is still something wrong" James moved in front of him saying "No I'll check, you have to stay okay so you can watch out for your sisters" Alexander said "Okay thanks" James walked towards the door and gasped when he walked outside. "What is it? Are you ok?" They asked. "Come look" James muttered. They all walked outside and what they saw shocked them. The sky was no longer the bright blue they remembered. It wasn't even the grey of storms. It was a burning red color. Even the sun looked pure red. The ground as far as they could see in every direction was dry ground with only dead plants on it. "What did they do" Alexander muttered under his breath. Then they started to realize it was fairly hot outside, hotter than it had ever been before where they lived. "Well let's get moving we will head home first it's only a little away" he said to James.

As they walked down his old street he was amazed how many houses still stood, it was like being trapped in a place that had been empty for hundreds of years. They got to his house and Alexander held his shotgun up to his chest and asked James if he would stay watch outside. James agreed and the three entered the house which was standing but looked destroyed. "Be careful" he said. The entered the house to find it mostly empty except a note nailed in the wall. Alexander call the others and the read it _I hope this note finds you guys ok, your mom and I have gone to the town center because there is supposed to be a meeting there and we hope you will be there. We searched all of the school bunkers but you weren't in any of them but we won't give up so if you find this come to the town center. We will be waiting. Love mom and dad_. Alexander looked up and saw tears in his sister's eyes. It pained him to know they were looking too but he couldn't let the girls see it. "They will be fine" he said "Lets head to the town center."

As they walked to the town center nobody talked. The first noise they heard besides the wind was screaming. A woman was running down the street from the town center babbling words that made no sense. They looked at each other stopping then all burst into running towards the town center. When they reached it, it was madness people were attacking other people biting them and clawing at them. One person ran past them saying "It's some of those who were outside during the bombing. They are trying to eat everyone!" The group each grabbed their guns tighter and started walking into the madness looking for their parents.


	4. The New Order on the Food Chain

Chapter 4: The new order on the food chain

As they walked through the madness Alexander looked around saying I guess those new nukes have a stronger effect on everything. They looked and everything was affected by radiation; there were people trying to eat other people with their skin falling off, there were animals that looked mutated and some were even larger than they were before. They even saw a hellish looking crow the size of a large dog. As they walked through the town and were forced to shoot anything that got near them, at least they knew normal people wouldn't be staying in this area so there wasn't a risk of shooting an innocent.

They walked around the center of town seeing people they knew and some of which were laying dead on the floor in pieces. Pandora closed her eyes holding on to them as they walked. They heard their names from behind them and turned around to see their mom running towards them. They ran toward her until they heard "No stop!" Alexander turned around and saw his father aiming a gun at his mom. They stopped half way between their parents both of them calling the group towards them. The girls looked at Alexander asking "What do we do?" "I'm not sure yet" He responded "Kids get over here that's not your mom anymore! She had been effected by the radiation" Zoe looked closer at her mom seeing that in the moment they were so excited to see their parents they didn't even notice her skin was peeling off. "Alexander I think dad is right" She said. Pandora shook her head saying "No! Mom your ok come here" They all turned towards their mom and their mom started sprinting at them and just as she got to them she was thrown back as bullets flew into her from their fathers bullets. They all stopped moving watching as their mom fell to her knees and then collapsed on the ground only a few feet away. James looked back at the group's dad and saw tears in his eyes.

The five of them sat on the steps of the nearest building four of them crying. James just sat there with them wishing he could make them feel better but he knew nothing could rid them of the memory of their mother being shot by their father just to protect them. Their father looked the worst of them, his clothes were ragged, his skin was burnt, and his face swelled with tears from shooting his wife. "You guys" James started "I know you must be in pain right now but it's getting dark and we need to find somewhere to set up camp for the night" The dad looked up at him "Set up camp?" "What's the point? Where are we going to go?" James looked at him saying "Look I heard some people talking about a town where all of the sane people are going" They all looked at each other not talking. Finally Alexander spoke up "Well either way we are not going to give up, we can't" they all nodded their father said "As James pointed out we need to find somewhere to stay the night so let's get on that" They all stood up agreeing and looking around. They saw an old motel that was empty so they decided on that. As they set up everything James was on watch duty. The girls were setting up the sleeping bags for the boys and they laid on the bed that they were to share. James had first watch and they switched off every few hours.


	5. Those Who Must Pay

Chapter 5: Those who must pay

Alexander woke up as the sunlight shone through the cracks in the wall and hit his face. As he stood up he saw Pandora standing next to the door and she looked at him with her finger over her lips telling him to be quiet. He stopped moving, listening to any noises he could hear and he heard voices outside. "Come on Jay" said the first one "There is bound to be someone in this motel and they might have something we could use" Alexander stood up quietly and looked through a crack in the wall and saw three men standing outside with guns and military armor on. The one they called Jay looked around saying "look nobody is here we need to head somewhere where we can actually find people who have what we need" As Alexander watched he saw a man running up to the group screaming "Finally the military!" They laughed "We aren't the military, we just killed some guys and took these" another of them smirked "and now that's what we're going to do to you" Alexander looked back in the room and saw everyone was awake and heard it. "Should we help him?" he asked. Their father looked at him saying "We will all go out there at once and take them out" and then they all grabbed their guns walking towards the door. They slowly opened the door walking outside. Alexander thought surprisingly "they haven't noticed us yet." Then the men turned around and started laughing. Their leader Jay said "you guys are sad, people always fall for us about to kill some innocent" Then the man who they had thought was in trouble pulled out a gun. Then Alexander looked at them saying fine take this and leave us alone as he tossed his backpack at them. One of the men caught it and just as he did Alexander shot him with his shotgun and he fell dead on the floor. As soon as he hit the ground they dove back in the room and the men outside started firing at them.

They all pushed everything in the room in front of the door and windows blocking them and backed up. "What do we do now?" James asked and the bullets stopped. They looked out of a crack and saw the guys were running off, as they left he heard one of them say "It wasn't worth it to lose Bill." They all sighed with relief then they saw Pandora slump to the ground and they all stopped. They saw her shirt turning red and realized that one of their shots had hit her. The dad, having medical training looked at the wound realizing there was no way she would live. They had gotten one lucky shot off and had killed his daughter. As he looked up at the others her eyes closed and her body went limp. Alexander's knees buckled and he fell to the ground crying above his little sister's now dead body. Even James was crying as he had become close with the group after all of this. They all sat there crying finally Alexander said "We can't leave her like this we need to bury her." They agreed and had soon gone outside with their father watching guard had dug a hole deep enough so no animals would dig it up and buried her in it. As they filled in the last of the hole they found some wood and made it into a cross and placed it at her head of her grave.

They stood silently above the grave and decided that they would each take turns and say something in private and then as a group would go back inside. Their dad was first and he walked up to the grave standing silently saying only "I love you" and walking back to the group sending Zoe next. As Zoe approached the grave her eyes burned from all the crying "Hey Pandora, I hope you're doing good wherever you are" She said "I miss you big sis" next James walked up to her grave he stood at the foot of the grave saying "I didn't know you for very long but it was long enough to care about you and your family. I'm sorry this happened to you, you were a good person, you deserved more than this" Finally Alexander walked up the Pandora's grave. "Hey" he said "It's my fault this happened. I should have protected you better; I should have not had us go outside. I'm sorry!" he got on his knees next to her grave leaning over it and reaching in his left pant pocket. He pulled out an old ring and smiled crying. "Remember this? It's your old ring from when we were kids and we both had one and we pretended that we each had powers. I found it the morning of the bombs I still have mine also" He pushed the ring in the dirt saying "I'll always have mine and you will have yours now" He smiled and stood up walking back towards the group.


End file.
